On 20 August 2025 the ABC published its new guidelines on public comment by ABC workers. They were commissioned by the ABC’s new Managing Director, Hugh Marks, following the highly damaging Antoinette Lattouf affair. Their principal author, ABC Editorial Director Gavin Fang, discussed them with members of the Board of ABC Alumni prior to publication. Alumni director Jonathan Holmes believes that, contrary to a lot of third-party commentary, the new guidelines offer more protection to ABC worker...

On 10 July, Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal AO, appointed last year by the Albanese government, published her Plan to Combat Antisemitism.  It has already come under attack from many quarters, especially for urging the nationwide adoption of a contested definition of antisemitism, and for its call for universities, researchers, cultural institutions, and public broadcasters to have their funding withdrawn if they encourage, or do not do enough to combat, antisemi...

ABC Alumni director and former Media Watch presenter Jonathan Holmes has been reading the federal court judgment in the case of Antoinette Lattouf v the ABC, and reflecting on the lessons it has to teach. 27 June 2025“From start to finish, the whole issue has been just a sorry saga for everyone.”  It’s probably the first time in my life I have found myself in whole-hearted agreement with The Australian’s Media Editor James Madden.  Almost everyone involved within the ABC, from Antoinette Lattou...

Did a targeted social media campaign run on peanuts help secure a safer future for our ABC? The ABC Alumni is but a tiny speck of people compared with our allies, the mighty Friends of the ABC. We are around 200 people who’ve worked at or with the ABC as journos, producers, techs, execs, film-makers and digital creatives, so we are at least good at ferreting out the root of a problem, making content and meeting a deadline (on crumbs). Late last year, with the Federal election looming dateless...

The cohort of first time voters at this year’s Federal election have different ways of learning about the world than many of us. Generation Z’s media consumption habits are shaped by growing up with high-speed internet, smartphones and streaming media from an early age. These digital natives consume primarily on mobile phones: TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. They prefer short-form video as it’s fast and entertaining. What they see is driven by the platforms’ algorithmic feeds rather than by the...

In this interview with Jonathan Holmes on 7am Podcasts broadcast on 15 April, Jonathan discusses on the Coalition’s plans for the ABC, and whether it’s possible to truly shield the national broadcaster from outside interference.The podcast host, Daniel James begins.. "In January, Jonathan Holmes met with the ABC’s then managing director, David Anderson. Jonathan and his colleagues at ABC Alumni wanted to know if Anderson was concerned about funding cuts under a Dutton-led government. ...... "Wh...

Much-loved Melbourne based ABC radio broadcaster Julie Copeland died early this year and will be farewelled at a celebration in St Kilda later in March.Julie had come to the ABC from commercial radio but had a global view of the arts that only ABC Radio Two (as RN was called back then) could properly host. "Arts National", "Arts Talk", "Sunday Morning Arts", but I met her as a young radio panel operator (ROPO) when she was presenting the book program "First Edition". My memories are fond. She w...

News Corp’s tabloid papers published a vicious attack on the ABC on Friday 14, and another on Saturday 15 February. .  Their content has been endlessly regurgitated on Sky News.It looks like a continuing campaign to abolish the ABC will be a feature of News Corp's election coverage.  ABC Chairman Kim Williams issued a robust response to the first front-page article on Friday.  You can read it by clicking on this link to the ABC's website.   To back up Kim Williams, ABC Alumni director Dr Michae...